Fallen from Grace
by Seizure-On-Demand
Summary: Taffyta Muttonfudge watches Ralph and Vanellope play together and thinks, "I had a best friend too, once." Taffyta and King Candy Friendship/Angst, a one-shot.


Greetings, ya'll! Welcome to the magical land of angst! Oh, sweet angst, the bottomless cookie jar of fanfiction authors! This is a one-shot I've had sitting in my Documents folder for a little while now. I was almost ready to abandon it, but the success of my other fanfic "Through Her Eyes" inspired me to just finish the damn thing and publish it. So…here, have some popular headcanon involving King Candy and Taffyta having a close father-daughter relationship before he kicked the bucket…

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Wreck-It Ralph. I also don't own the relevant song lyrics right below this sentence.

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"_I know the truth now,  
I know who you are,  
and I don't love you anymore._

_It never was and never will be.  
You don't know how you've betrayed me  
and somehow you've got everybody fooled._

_It never was and never will be._  
_You're not real and you can't save me._  
_Somehow now you're everybody's fool."_

Evanescence, "Everybody's Fool."

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**Fallen from Grace**

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Taffyta never thought that she would envy Vanellope von Schweetz. She never thought that Vanellope would get something that she wanted for herself but couldn't have. In a game where one's merit was determined by trophies and racing stats, Taffyta was sure that she had it all. But Vanellope had won a prize that exposed Taffyta's few joys in life for what they really were: cold metal and numbers.

"_Higher, Ralph! Higher!" _

That prize was a friend. A best friend.

"_HIGHER!"_

Wreck-It Ralph came to _Sugar Rush_ often, and during his visits he and the President liked to play games. Taffyta thought that the games they played were silly and childish, but she would still sit down and watch them from a distance whenever she had the opportunity. Perhaps she would have joined in if they had asked her, but the thought never passed through their minds and Taffyta would rather eat paper than beg them to let her play with them. She still had_ some_ dignity left, despite everything that was happening to her.

Sitting cross-legged on top of a small cliff, Taffyta looked down upon the Peppermint Forest and watched Ralph repeatedly throw Vanellope up into the air like a football. A silly and childish game, just like all the others, but Vanellope loved it. She was having the time of her life.

"_I had a best friend too, once," _Taffyta thought, watching them. _"But he could never throw me like that. He was too small…" _

It hadn't been very long since Turbo had perished in the Diet Cola volcano, which now lay in ruins. It was a celebrated death, in _Sugar Rush_ and throughout the rest of the arcade. A monster was dead. Long live the President…

"_Long live the King!" _Taffyta used to scream it, with joy, with excitement. She used to look up at him right before he slid down the banner to join the rest of the racers, beaming all the while. She used to exchange friendly grins with him when she passed him on the racetrack in her kart, or when he passed her in his. But the best part was at the end of the race. Regardless of who won, he always had words of praise for her, and a gentle pinch for her glowing cheek.

"You're my little favourite, Taffy-Cakes," he'd say, smiling like an affectionate grandfather, like a friend. A best friend, all to herself. The other racers didn't get this treatment. She was singled out as the favorite.

But whose favorite had she been? His…or _his?_

Taffyta had lost count of how many times she'd re-watched the racing video, in which her beloved king glitched into a skeleton-like creature she didn't know and didn't want to know. Some nights, in the quieter hours of the evening, Vanellope allowed Taffyta to sit alone for private screenings in the castle's movie theatre, where videos of old races were featured at set times for the racers and the populace to enjoy. But this particular video was one that no one enjoyed, not even Taffyta, who kept watching it regardless, on her own. The President had wanted to delete the video at first, but in the end she just let it sit in the programming, as a morbid relic, a reminder. She'd been surprised when Taffyta first requested to watch it, but she obliged her fellow racer's request anyways, and handed over the key to the theatre.

"Don't make a mess in there," Vanellope joked the first time, but Taffyta couldn't bring herself to laugh, not even forcefully. "Bring the key right back to me when you're done!"

Taffyta went into the theatre over and over again and sat alone each time, silently watching the scene play out with a wide-eyed, teary gaze. It was like being trapped in a hypnotic trance. She couldn't stop watching the transformation take place, even though she just wanted to shut her eyes and scream.

That face.

That murderous _face._

That grin.

_Those yellow eyes…_

That was his real face. His real grin. His real eyes. _"Long live the King…"_

And yet for some reason Taffyta kept asking Vanellope to let her watch it. It was like trying to figure out a puzzle, solve a mystery. Why had she cried out those four words for this creature? Why did she ever smile at him? And why did her ears still crave to hear the name Taffy-Cakes again, spoken with that _other_ face, that kindly, false one?

Taffyta's nights alone in her hut were spent weeping into her pillow and tossing and turning in her sponge cake bed while her stubborn insomnia strangled her. When she did manage to sleep, she dreamt of _him. _She wished that she didn't. She would rather dream of anything else. But there he was, every night, smiling that grandfatherly smile and affectionately calling her Taffy-Cakes, while Taffyta screamed at him to go away.

"You're not real! You were _never _real! Leave me alone!"

It was always the same dream, playing out like a script, getting more devastating and terrifying every single time. In her dream he was always King Candy first, and they stood alone together in the throne room, just like they'd done when he was still alive. But something was horribly wrong. When he reached out for her, she moved away quickly, knowing that he'd hurt others with those hands and that he would hurt her if she let him.

_Taffy-Cakes, my dear, dry those pretty eyes and come give your king a hug. _A heartfelt chuckle followed these words. A part of her wanted to throw her instincts aside and just run into his arms, because she remembered that those cruel limbs had once been warm, but she was afraid. _Oh so afraid._ She knew now what a demon he was, and how he was not against hurting children. He'd tried to delete Vanellope, all those years ago, when Sugar Rush fell to the mercy of his greed and ambition. He'd tried to kill one little girl. What would stop him from trying to kill _her_?

"Don't touch me," she warned him. Sadly, Taffyta Muttonfudge would always follow her instincts, even in her dreams, even when it broke her heart.

"Don't be like that," he begged. His disappointment of her refusal to hug him almost sounded real. Maybe it was. He kept moving towards her, his arms wide open and inviting. "What's the matter, my little Taffy-Cakes?"

"D-Don't touch me," she repeated in a choked whisper, slowly backing away. "I can't be your Taffy-Cakes anymore! I can't! No, get away! DON'T TOUCH ME!"

His face would change then, his skin melting away like ice cream, dripping down onto his royal clothes. Said clothes would drop from his body like a snake skin and lie around his ankles. Taffyta felt sick to her stomach and an anguished sob got caught in her throat. Turbo, the skeleton man, would be left standing where her sweet king had been and he would violently seize her, dragging her through the pink palace hallways by the hair while Taffyta thrashed about and screamed. He hit her, kicked her, told her to shut up, because didn't she deserve this? Didn't she deserve to suffer too, for forsaking her precious princess?

"_YOU MADE ME DO IT!"_ Taffyta shrieked at him, her shrill voice echoing through the empty hallways. There was no one in the world but herself and Turbo, and he was going to kill her without opposition. She had to pay a debt to Vanellope as well, he told her. What better way to do that than by simply dying and getting out of her way, so that she may bask alone in the spotlight? The gamers liked her better, anyways. She was faster and cooler than poor, boring Taffyta. His laugh was a vicious one. Out with the old, in with the new, and in _this_ arcade old things were_ thrown out._

"_Do you want to know how it feels to DIE, my little Taffy-Cakes?" _Turbo cried out, shrieking with maniacal laughter. Still hanging onto her, he kicked open a door to reveal a room with a deep black pit swarming with Cy-Bugs, their jaws open and dripping. Their buzzing filled Taffyta's ears and she screamed. She screamed and she begged, for mercy, for a second chance. But Turbo had no mercy, not for her. Not for anyone.

Those hideous yellow eyes looked down into the pit, at the Cy-Bugs. "Here, you bloody pests! Have some _CANDY!"_

He threw her in, and Taffyta fell and fell and fell, downwards into a Cy-Bug's open mouth. This was when she always woke up, with a tear-streaked face, her covers throw off the bed from her thrashing in her sleep.

It was the same dream every night. _Every night._ And every morning Taffyta would wash the dried tears from her face and gulp down a huge mug of tea to rejuvenate her spirits and bring the colour back to her cheeks. She forced herself to smile all day and pretend that nothing was wrong. But her grief was eating at her like a virus and she didn't know how long she would be able to keep up this charade before she cracked. She was just so _tired_, and when she raced she had to fight to keep her concentration. Dark purple circles began to appear under her eyes, and she had to use makeup to hide them.

She couldn't talk to anyone in her game about this, about how she still loved that false king, how her dreams still held onto traces of him. She didn't dare. They were all Vanellope's citizens now and to speak of King Candy as anything less than a monster was treason. Taffyta especially was under constant surveillance. Everyone watched her for signs of her loyalty to the usurper, but Taffyta would rather die than let her guard down. It would show them her weakness, and Taffyta Muttonfudge would not tolerate being seen as weak.

She had to be strong more than ever now, since her influence with the other racers was quickly slipping away. She was on her own more often than not. No one sucked up to Taffyta anymore. She was no longer the favourite, so what was the point? Some of the other racers went as far as snubbing her entirely, to punish her for her arrogance during King Candy's reign. Vanellope showed Taffyta more kindness than the white-haired girl deserved, but that was hardly compensation for the friendship she had lost.

_Vanellope…_

Taffyta kept sitting there on that cliff, watching Vanellope and Ralph, who were still playing that silly game. This was even sillier than the time they'd disappeared into the Candy Corn Maze to see who could make it to the end first. Ralph had gotten hopelessly lost, and Vanellope had to lead them both out. Taffyta had watched it all, from another small cliff, unseen.

"_Oh, programmers, I wish I could play with them…"_ Her heart sobbed, even though Taffyta would never say the words aloud. But it would be so nice to have a best friend again, to have fun and games and smiles…

Vanellope had won everything in the end. In this game, the winner takes it all. She had the kingdom, she had the top spot on the racing roster, and she had bleachers overflowing with fans (some of them had formally been Taffyta's fans and had switched loyalties). She had a special place in the hearts of the gamers, who constantly chose her as their racer during gameplay. Most of all, Vanellope had a best friend. A best friend she could rely on to catch her no matter how high she soared.

"Getting tired yet?" Taffyta heard Ralph's voice call out. Not to _her_, of course. It would never be her. Ralph was Vanellope's second half. Taffyta's had died in a blast of Diet Cola lava. But he visited her, every night in her dreams. _Long live the King…_

Ralph's laugh echoed through the forest, all the way up to where Taffyta was sitting. He had a warm laugh, like the one that haunted Taffyta's dreams. Up Vanellope went again, this time flying high above the top of a tree. Taffyta watched her plummet back down and wondered if _this _would be the time that Ralph failed to catch her. But of course he caught her. Vanellope landed safely into those massive hands that were even more reliable than a circus performer's net.

The little President was now breathless from screaming and laughing. Ralph was laughing too, and the sounds of their revelry seemed to completely take over the forest.

Taffyta kept sitting there, her balled-up fists shaking in her lap. She refused to get up and walk away because two people were having more fun than she was. But the final blow came when Ralph lifted Vanellope above his head and started spinning around with her, while Vanellope threw out her arms like a bird spreading its wings.

_"Ralphie! You're making me diiiiizy!"_

Taffyta couldn't stop the tears from coming now, because watching them made her remember all the times that King Candy had merrily scooped her up in his arms and spun her around in a circle. They'd always been celebrating something…one of them winning a racing tournament, a _Sugar Rush_ anniversary…how happy and carefree they'd been, once upon a time. But now Taffyta had no one to celebrate anything with. She had nothing to celebrate at all. He was dead and their masquerade party had reached its end; the music had stopped playing, his mask had been flung aside. He was _dead._ So much for "_Long live the King..."_

Taffyta envied Vanellope von Schweetz. The realization was like a blow to the head, but it was the truth. She envied her that friendship, that security, that knowledge that the person you cared for wasn't a complete fake. Ralph was only a Bad Guy, but he was alive, he was_ real_, and he would always be there to catch Vanellope when she fell.

Taffyta had wasted her life away loving a lie, and now she was completely and utterly alone. No one would ever catch her now.

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**Fin **

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Damn it, this is one of the most depressing things that I have ever written. Seriously, even my angst-ridden high school poems don't hold up a candle to this. Wow.

Please review!


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